


the first try

by Nadler



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: Dallas Stars, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-25
Updated: 2017-12-25
Packaged: 2019-02-20 00:01:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,248
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13134936
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nadler/pseuds/Nadler
Summary: Kari wins a milestone game. Esa reflects about the team.





	the first try

**Author's Note:**

> AKA: nadler has way too many feelings about the Dallas Stars Finns. Bring your own feels.

"I'm really close," Kari says, with a sort of half-assed wonder, and like, Esa definitely would ask someone else what they meant (not really), but goalies, man. This is too much to wonder about after a bag skate, and Coach Hitch's practices feel like one big bag skate after another. 

Esa nods. He looks at Kari quizzically. There's a smile there, under the round face and scratchy stubble. 

"Kiprusoff's record," he tells Esa anyway. "I'm really close. I'm going to beat it." The smile falls. Kari falters, looking a little bewildered. He adds, quieter: "I'm going to play in more games."

Uncharted territory. Still, "How many is that?" 

"623." Kari doesn't even hesitate, every careful syllable rolling off his tongue. 

Esa shakes his head. "Is this a midlife crisis?" 

Maybe it is. 

 

Esa would have left it at that, but the media start asking questions, too, about it. After they beat the Rangers, and Kari's close to something, some milestone. They ask everyone who cares about it, and Julius is luckier, he lets the radio guys steal him away. They'll ask him easy things, and Esa has to try to articulate what Kari is, other than a goalie. 

So he says, trying to scramble for whatever he knows about Kari. Esa's not asking to be his best friend, but he did play for Jokerit, once upon a time. It never really dawned on Esa how young Kari really, really was; sixteen seemed so grown up when Esa was a real kid, and Kari was already playing pro. "He didn't play a lot, just few years, but he was a big superstar in Finland, too, when he was young."

Esa doesn't fault him for feeling old. 

"You're popular today," Julius jokes, on the bus. 

"They wanted to ask me about Kari."

"Just about Kari? " Julius asks. "What do you know about goaltending?" 

"I played for Jokerit, too, you know," Esa mumbles.

"Yeah, like ten years apart. You don't have any stories." Then it hits Julius. "Were you a _fan_?"

"Trading cards," Esa admits. "C'mon, it was _Kari Lehtonen_ " He frowns. "That's how we used to talk about him, when he was young." It's how Esa used to, anyway. And people are always fond of goalies. 

"You're going to tell him he's old to his face?" Julius asks, incredulously. Then he even scans the seats to find where Kari's trying to sleep. 

If Julius is going to make a scene, Esa swears he's going to put itching powder in his jock. Maybe dye in his shampoo. 

But Julius drops it, and they split a pair of earbuds while Esa's trying to catch up on a show from back home. Julius doesn't even watch much TV, but he leans into Esa anyway, and he looks out the windowseat when he gets drowsy, a hand on Esa's wrist.

Esa almost feels like he's back down in Cedar Park, and this is just another long bus ride with Julius. It's fucking surreal that they get to be here, in Dallas. It seemed like just yesterday they were only boys on a bus in Austin, sticking together because they were Finns and defensemen and more than a little lonely. 

 

The difference between Kiprusoff and Kari is vast; it's not only because of their stats and the teams they've played for. It's that Kari was so young when he made it, and and that yes, Esa was a fan. Kari was a superstar; they used to say that he was the best goalie to ever come out of Finland.

 

They grind the Islanders into dust. Esa shouldn't feel this pleased; it's a long season, but he does, and Kari gets his win. He gets the stupid shiny helmet, too, and then Segs suggests, "I found this place last night--"

So it's a celebration, really, when Rads starts being affectionate and yelling in barely discernible Russian, hugs and beers shared sloppily at the tables they've commandeered in the bar. Shoresy bears it with a grin, taking a shot of whatever brightly colored thing Segs passed into his hand. 

"Congratulations," Esa finds the time to tell Kari, before everyone gets too drunk to handle themselves. Kari looks up, fairly quickly. They can't really have too much; they've got to go to New Jersey soon, but they can have some fun as a team. It's bonding. "Important win?" 

"They all are!" answers Remi, as he leaves the booth, and there's room for Esa and Julius, if they squeeze a little, so they sit. Esa looks over their teammates. They're only halfway through this road trip, but he can swear things are knitting together. 

John almost trips over his own feet. Smitty laughs, because he is a helpful teammate. Spezz pulls a chair out of the way before John can hit it, and well, that's actually helpful. 

Esa puts his own drink down on the table. Julius starts inching it over towards himself, mostly because he can't care to be carded himself and Esa's taller, so they ask less. Kari raises his eyebrows a little because he has eyes, but he doesn't say anything about it. 

"You deserve something, you know--" Julius doesn't even slur, and he's lapsed back into Finnish like he always does, despite trying to promise that he'd help Esa's shitty English. "It means a lot. They don't understand." 

"They try," Kari says, sipping slowly at his second drink. He has an expression that someone might say was wry, but it's Kari, it doesn't really land. "Were you going to bake me a cake?" 

"With six hundred candles?" 

"I wouldn't trust Esa's cooking that much," Julius chirps. "But I can find time to make frosting." Esa's heart pounds a little bit more--Julius is always so fucking cocky; it shouldn't look so good on him. 

Maybe it's because of the lights of New York, or because it's the high of the win, or because Kari's in the history books and everyone was playing for him--or maybe it's because Julius tilts his head at his good angle and pours in all the confidence that just oozes off him, well earned and well worn, and Julius's smile, even without his tooth, is magnificent. Maybe it's all of those things. It's pretty infectious. But Esa smiles, too, leans back into his seat. Julius tries to crowd into Esa's space until it looks like he's tilted up to tell Esa something, arm spread on the top of the booth behind him. He says nothing. 

Esa's already heard it all.

"You know," Esa says. He turns to Kari for good measure. "You used to be a superstar. " 

Kari's expression is careful, calm, like he's used to it. "Everyone gets their fifteen minutes." He's heard that a lot or he's already read Esa's quotes; whichever it is. 

"You still play like one." Esa rolls his shoulders. "You're just not sixteen anymore. It's not as special." 

"No, I guess it wouldn't be." And Kari's smile is genuine, at that. 

Rous comes around with another round, and they all raise to toast whatever the hell he's saying. They all take one. Esa feels the alcohol warming up his skin, Julius at his shoulder, Kari looking pleased at himself, even as Jamie tries to get him to stand up and say something like this is the locker room, like he wasn't handed the ugly helmet earlier tonight. 

Esa laughs, and he thinks, maybe he's not a lonely Finnish boy lost in America after all.


End file.
